By JUAN A. LOZANO
HOUSTON (AP) — 9 individuals, together with a former mayor and metropolis council member and the chief of workers to a state consultant, pleaded not responsible on Wednesday to felony expenses introduced forth in a rural Texas county by Republican Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton as a part of a widening elections investigation that’s being criticized by Latino rights activists as being politically pushed.
The 9 individuals appeared both in individual or by Zoom throughout a court docket listening to in Pearsall, Texas, earlier than state District Decide Sid Harle.
All the 9 individuals, who have been indicted in late June, have been charged with what is understood in Texas as vote harvesting, a felony that always includes cost for accumulating and dropping off different individuals’s absentee ballots.
In Might, six different individuals, together with Frio County Decide Rochelle Camacho, the highest elected official within the county, have been indicted as a part of Paxton’s investigation.
One of many people who pleaded not responsible on Wednesday was Juan Manuel Medina, who’s the chief of workers for state Rep. Elizabeth Campos. Medina can also be former chairman of the Democratic Get together of Bexar County, the place San Antonio is positioned.
Medina’s lawyer, Gerry Goldstein, declined to touch upon Wednesday. “I’m going to do my speaking within the courtroom,” Goldstein stated.
On Wednesday, Goldstein filed a movement to dismiss the indictment in opposition to Medina, who’s accused of offering compensation as a 3rd get together to 2 individuals for vote harvesting in February 2024.
Within the movement to dismiss, Goldstein stated the vote-harvesting statute is overbroad, imprecise and “restricts Constitutionally protected rights to speech and to take part within the election and voting course of in violation of the First Modification.”
Goldstein stated within the movement that the vote-harvesting statute “would seem to punish a broad vary of protected speech, together with non-coercive voter help and core political expression, with out requiring any precise voter fraud, coercion, or intimidation.”
“This indictment expenses Medina in a capability that isn’t a criminal offense and the indictment needs to be dismissed,” Goldstein stated in his 20-page movement.
The vote-harvesting expenses are third-degree felonies and carry as much as 10 years in jail. The opposite individuals who have been indicted in June are: Cecilia Castellano, a former candidate for state consultant; Frio County Commissioner Raul Carrizales; former Dilley Mayor Mary Ann Obregon; former Dilley Metropolis Council member Inelda Rodriguez; Petra Davina Trevino, a former candidate for Pearsall metropolis council; Pearsall college district trustee Mari Benavides; Susanna Carrizales; and Rachel Leal.
Attorneys for Raul Carrizales, Susanna Carrizales, Castellano, Obregon and Rodriguez didn’t instantly return calls looking for remark. Attorneys for Benavides, Leal and Trevino couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Paxton’s workplace and 81st Judicial District Legal professional Audrey Gossett Louis, whose workplace offered the case to a grand jury with the Texas Legal professional Basic’s Workplace, didn’t return a name or e-mail looking for remark.
Final month, Paxton stated that any elected official “attempting to cheat the system should reply for it.”
“Underneath my watch, makes an attempt to rig elections and silence the need of the voters will likely be met with the total drive of the regulation. I’ll proceed to combat to make sure Texas has free and truthful elections,” Paxton stated in a press release.
The indictments have been the most recent improvement in an investigation that Paxton began after the 2020 election to root out voter fraud, which is uncommon and usually happens in remoted cases. Texas has tightened its voter legal guidelines in recent times and elevated penalties that Democrats and opponents say are makes an attempt to suppress turnout amongst Black and Latino voters.
A federal appeals court docket final 12 months upheld the state’s regulation that tightened voter restrictions and elevated penalties for vote harvesting.
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